10 Things I Like: UFC Vegas 20 Edition
Plenty of people are looking ahead to next weekend, but Saturday's fight card has a lot to offer.
I’m the younger of two boys and my brother, who is two years older than me, is one of those folks who is just incredibly good at literally anything he really invests himself in.
He was an outstanding goaltender during his youth hockey days, on a trajectory to play in the OHL and maybe even have a career in the crease before the politics of a hockey-obsessed small town sucked the joy of playing out of him and made him hang up his pads. This isn’t me just pumping my brother’s tires either — he played with multiple future OHL standouts, as well as eventual NHL first-overall pick Ed Jovanovski, so yeah, he was really good.
When he took an interest in announcing harness races, he was a prodigy — a kid that just commanded the booth and captivated the listeners with his calls. Even at a tiny little track in Southwestern Ontario, chatter about the baby-faced announcer got so loud that The World of Horse Racing, a weekly TSN series dedicated to covering thoroughbred and standardbred racing, made a trip out to do a profile on him.
That passion turned into pursuit of a degree in Radio & Television Arts at Ryerson University and gigs calling races at racetracks big and small throughout Ontario. He was so gifted behind a microphone and on camera that even though he dropped out of the prestigious RTA program to spend more time working hands-on in the barn, training horses, he was still hired as the No. 1 anchor when The Racing Network launched a few years later, ahead of one of his classmates, I should add.
My brother is UFC 259, and I’m this weekend’s fight card at the Apex.
He’s the marquee names, massive fights, stylish promotional material and pre-fight buzz, while I’m the sneaky-good event overshadowed by the absolute juggernaut it stands alongside.
That’s not a “woe is me” statement either — I knew early on that my big brother was special and that meant he would get the lion’s share of the attention, and I was fine with it, just so long as there was recognition of what I brought to the table as well because while I wasn’t a prodigious broadcasting talent or standout hockey player, I had some areas where I excelled and was a pretty good kid all things considered.
For many people, the focus is on next week, where three title fights featuring four champions will close out the first truly outstanding fight card of the year, but that doesn’t mean this weekend’s even doesn’t have something to offer as well.
I love these cards. I identify with these cards. I look forward to these cards.
Here’s what I’m looking forward to seeing on Saturday night.
Continued Heavyweight Clarification
This month has already featured five contests that have began the process of reshaping the pecking order in the heavyweight division, including a pair of main events that ended in emphatic finishes and had clear and obvious ramifications on how things could end up being booked going forward.
Saturday night brings another main event with more top-end implications as Jairzinho Rozenstruik squares off with Ciryl Gane in a clash of Top 10 talents each coming off a stoppage victory over former champ Junior Dos Santos.
After years of the division feeling like it was stuck in the mud, this month’s collection of heavyweight contests and the slate on tap for March are finally bringing some movement and freshness to the division, allowing new names to climb the ranks, established competitors to cement their positions within the hierarchy, and different matchup permutations to present themselves, all of which finally have people excited about the heavyweight division again.
While it’s imperative that the promotion continues to keep things moving in order to maintain the momentum garnered from this month and next month’s impressive assemblage of compelling matchups, that’s a problem for “Future Ted and Future Marshall” to worry about; right now, it’s time to settle in for the third heavyweight main event in four weeks and get excited about the new possibilities that all this action could produce later this year.
Another Test for Ciryl Gane
As someone who frequently prefers the “slow and steady” approach with emerging talents over throwing them into the deep end or hustling them along too fast once they get a couple wins, I have to admit that I’m really excited about the way the UFC has booked Gane thus far.
In his rookie campaign, he beat a couple fellow newcomers and then topped a significantly more experienced, but middle-tier to push his record to 6-0 overall. After just under a year on the sidelines due to fight and event cancellations and a surgical procedure, he returned in December to dominate and finish Dos Santos and pick ups his fourth straight triumph inside the Octagon. Now stationed at No. 7 in the rankings, he makes the relatively quick turnaround to take on Rozenstruik, who sits at No. 4 in the heavyweight hierarchy and blazed an even quicker trail to contention.
And make no mistake about it: Gane is a contender, as his coach, Fernand Lopez, want to make abundantly clear when I spoke with the close tandem ahead of this contest.
“Ciryl is not a rookie anymore — he’s a contender for the title! He’s a f****** contender! People need to know that. He’s humble, but I’ve never seen someone improving and growing that much, that fast, that well. I’m sorry to interrupt him, but it’s frustrating for me because people don’t realize how good he is.”
Yes, coaches are always going to sing the praises of their charges, but Lopez isn’t wrong — Gane has been undeniably impressive thus far and profiles as someone with legitimate championship potential, and that’s why this weekend’s matchup against Rozenstruik is the perfect next step.
If people want to diminish his victory over JDS because he’s in decline and has now lost four straight, fine, but there is no way to take anything away from him if he goes out and does something similar to “Bigi Boy” on Saturday night. The kickboxer from Suriname’s only loss came against Francis Ngannou and he was the buzzed about heavyweight in the division heading into that contest.
Now Gane holds that distinction and if he keep causing along the way he has thus far, he could very well hold the UFC heavyweight title some time soon.
Magomed Ankalaev: Light Heavyweight Contender
I genuinely don’t know why more people aren’t talking about Magomed Ankalaev, who takes on Nikita Krylov in the co-main event on Saturday night.
In a division where folks moaned for years about needing fresh, young talent, here’s a 28-year-old upstart that is literally seconds away from being 15-0, is still 14-1 overall, and has won five straight inside the Octagon, four by stoppage, including each of the last three. He has a different style than most light heavyweights and is exactly the type of fresh face people longed to see emerging in the division for years, and yet… crickets.
Maybe it’s because there is a massive title fight on the horizon or that there are a couple other new names ahead of him in the rankings at the moment, but everything I’ve seen about Ankalaev thus far leads me to believe that he’s going to be a fixture in the title conversation very soon and for the foreseeable future and this weekend’s matchup with Krylov is a great test of that hypothesis.
The 28-year-old Krylov has a wealth of experience and a record that is far better than I think people recall dating back to his divisional debut, as he’s gone 11-4, with all of his losses coming to Top 10 fighters (at the time), including current champ Jan Blachowicz and top contender Glover Teixeira. So far, he’s struggled against the best opposition he’s faced, and if Ankalaev can add his name to the small, but impressive list of talented fighters to get the better of Krylov in the UFC, it should signal that he’s primed for a step up in competition and a chance to prove himself against the light heavyweight elites.
The Deepening Flyweight Division
When the women’s flyweight division was introduced to the UFC on Season 26 of The Ultimate Fighter and began in earnest in 2018, it was in the same place just about every division is when it first arrives in the UFC: short on depth, slightly top heavy, and featuring significant gaps in talent and experience at a couple different spots along the hierarchy.
Now a couple months into it’s fourth full year of activity, the 125-pound weight class is in a better place, and this weekend’s main card clash between Montana De La Rosa and Mayra Bueno Silva illustrates that nicely.
Neither woman is ranked, yet each have winning records inside the Octagon. De La Rosa’s a TUF alum whose only losses have come against ranked opponents, while “Sheetara” submitted divisional favorite Gillian Robertson in her promotional debut and did the same to Mara Romero Borella last time out. Not that long ago, each of these women would have commanded a place in the Top 15, but that’s not the case now and the division is better for it.
While there is still some separation between different tiers of talents and groups of fighters, those gaps are much smaller now than they were when the division was launched. There are athletes in the lower half of the rankings you can see making a push for title contention, and others outside of the rankings that profile as Top 10 talents in the not too distant future, neither of which you could really say early on.
There is even more intrigue at the very top of the division now, as dominant champion Valentina Shevchenko is set to defend her title against former strawweight titleholder Jessica Andrade in late April, and finally isn’t favored by an astronomical amount for the first time in during her current reign.
Divisions go through cycles and it takes time to get them fully up and running. Four years in, the women’s flyweight ranks are finally hitting on all cylinders.
Munhoz-Rivera II (and the Continued Awesomeness of the Bantamweight Division)
Pedro Munhoz and Jimmie Rivera are currently positioned at Nos. 8 and 9 in the bantamweight rankings, respectively, and this weekend, they’ll face off for a second time in a rematch of their 2015 clash that saw Rivera emerge with a split decision victory.
The matchup has been on the books for a while and has been shuffled around to a few different cards, ultimately landing here and serving as another of the low-key outstanding matchups slated to hit the Octagon this weekend. It’s one of several Fight of the Night contenders on Saturday’s card and a bout that carries legitimate significance in the tremendously exciting and permanently interesting bantamweight division.
Since arriving in the UFC, neither of these men have ever lost to anyone positioned outside of the Top 10. Munhoz is 18-5 with one No Contest and his losses have come against Raphael Assunao, Rivera, John Dodson, Aljamain Sterling, and Frankie Edgar, with the Rivera, Dodson, and Edgar verdicts all being split decisions. As for Rivera, he’s 23-4 and the only people to get the better of him inside the Octagon are Marlon Moraes, Sterling, and Petr Yan.
These are elite competitors in a division that is so flush with talent at the moment that it deserves to be considered in the “best division in the UFC” conversation alongside featherweight and lightweight, and this fight is simply tucked away in the middle of this weekend’s six-fight main card for your viewing enjoyment.
I get that it suuuuuucks when fights are pulled from shallow events and our excitement for a particular event gets dowsed with cold water a couple days before show time, but here’s a dope fight everyone was pumped to see two weeks ago and the level of anticipation feels like it’s somewhere between “moderately interested” and “yeah, I’m excited (shrug)” and that makes me sad.
Munhoz-Rivera II is going to be terrific and I can’t wait to see it.
The Return of Salty Angela Hill
Let me be clear here: I love the saltiness being exhibited by Angela Hill over the last several months, which once again rose to the fore 7-10 days ago when she got into a back-and-forth with Tecia Torres prior to her fight this weekend with Ashley Yoder being announced.
Hill closed out her 2019 campaign with a stoppage victory over Ariane Carnelossi in Mexico City, and headed into 2020 wanting to stay as active as possible, figuring out that the longer she sat on the sidelines, the more time she had to overthink things. The plan worked perfectly to start the year, as “Overkill” earned victories over Hannah Cifers and Loma Lookboonmee on January 25 and February 23 respectively to push her winning streak to three and earn a step up in competition.
Each of her next two fights went the distance and ended in split decision verdicts where the TUF 20 alum was left wondering what more she needed to do in order to shift the results in her favor. What made matters worse is that many in the media saw the fights in her favor as well, with her loss to Claudia Gadelha really standing out as one the judges got wrong.
Now she’s set to kick off her year against Yoder, a fellow TUF alum (Season 23) who is just 3-5 inside the Octagon, but is a tougher out than her record indicates.
It’s not the type of matchup Hill was hoping for to being her 2021 campaign in the cage, but it also feels like the kind of matchup that ultimately could be the catalyst to getting in there with the more established names in the division again should she secure a dominant victory on Saturday.
And it’s also brought out the salty side of the usually humorous and playful UFC strawweight, and “Fired Up Angie” is fun to watch too.
Fighter I Can’t Quit: Alex Caceres
Alex Caceres made his UFC debut on March 26, 2011 against Mackens Semerzier in Seattle, Washington.
I was at that show — it was the first UFC event I was ever credentialed to cover (HeavyMMA) and a massive learning experience for me — and Caceres has been present in my professional life ever since.
This weekend, he makes the walk to the Octagon for the 24th time to face Kevin Croom, and he does so riding a three-fight winning streak — his longest run of success since a five-fight unbeaten streak from February 2012 to January 2014. Even though he’s been around forever, Caceres is just 32 and really does feel like he’s finally starting to put his considerable raw talents together in a way that could translate into a push towards the Top 15.
Or am I just telling myself that because for much of his career, I’ve been waiting for “Bruce Leeroy” to put it all together and make a push towards the Top 15.
Caceres really does remind me of Jeff Green, the well-travelled NBA forward who was one of the stars of the NBA Fans Support Group video by The Ringer that inspired this subheading being a constant feature in this space:
He’s got the raw materials — height, length, range — and he’s a little unorthodox, which can be a positive, plus he comes from a great camp, which is always favorable, but even with his current three-fight winning streak, he’s 12-10 with one No Contest in the UFC.
But here I am, a couple days out from another Alex Caceres fight, irrationally excited about seeing my man step into the Octagon once more.
Your Weekly Reminder that Lightweight is Insane
I know I said earlier that bantamweight deserves to be in the “best division in the UFC” conversation, but let me be clear: lightweight is still the undisputed champ.
Exhibit 246: this week’s clash between Thiago Moises and Alexander Hernandez.
Moises has earned back-to-back victories and at 25, is just starting to inch towards his athletic prime, while Hernandez started training with the Factory X crew midway through last year and rebounded with a first-round stoppage win in his final appearance of 2020.
Both have faced solid competition throughout their relatively brief UFC tenures and both exhibit Top 15 potential, but neither is positioned in the rankings right now and that’s because a guy like Islam Makhachev that is on a six-fight winning streak barely cracks the Top 15.
Note: Al Iaquinta and Gregor Gillespie probably should not be ranked at the moment, given it’s been a minute since they won a fight, but even then, Moises and Hernandez aren’t the only two hopefuls jockeying for position in the rankings.
That being said, the winner of this one will move one step closer to breaking into that recognized tier of talent in the 155-pound weight class and are two names to watch in the division going forward as some of the established names get a little older and the landscape continues to shift.
This one should be a banger.
I Want to Know More About: Sabina Mazo
Sabina Mazo really started garnering attention when she earned back-to-back first-round knockout wins over Jamie Thorton and Linsey Williams under the LFA banner in 2017. She followed those victories up by winning and successfully defending the LFA flyweight title, and then signed with the UFC, where she promptly lost a snoozer against Maryna Moroz in her promotional debut.
Nearly two years removed from that first foray into the Octagon and riding a three-fight winning streak, Mazo moves up to bantamweight this weekend to take on former title challenger Alexis Davis in a preliminary card fight that really piques my interest.
As a vocal proponent for giving fighters ample time to develop and learn and grow, I’m really curious to see what the next several years look like for the 23-year-old Mazo, who scored a third-round submission win over Justine Kish in her most recent outing and has obvious upside. She works with a great team at Kings MMA, has good size for the division, and as she continues to gain more experience — and top-end experience at that — “The Colombian Queen” could develop into a fighter who enjoys a lengthy residency in the lower half of the Top 15 in the 135-pound weight class.
And this fight with Davis feels like it should be fairly instructive, as the 36-year-old Canadian is tough as nails and has a tremendous experience advantage. Even though she’s dropped three straight and hasn’t fought since July 2019, you know what to expect from the veteran and what a strong performance over her would mean for someone like Mazo.
The Debut of Ronnie Lawrence
I’ve covered all four seasons of the Contender Series, so I’ve got a little bit of a soft spot for graduates of the talent search show, and this weekend, Ronnie Lawrence, a member of the Class of 2020, makes the walk to the Octagon for the first time to square off with UFC sophomore Vince Cachero.
Of the 37 fighters to earn contracts last season, Lawrence was one of the 11 competitors that did so without earning a finish, and that actually makes me a little more excited about his upside and seeing how he does going forward. Not that it’s easy to earn a stoppage inside the cage — it’s obviously not — but there is something to be said for dominating for three rounds to the point that Dana White still hands you a contract, which is exactly what happened following Lawrence’s win over Jose Johnson.
Currently training with the crew at Sanford MMA in South Florida, the 28-year-old from Tennessee gets a chance to make a solid first impression this weekend when he takes on Cachero, a 31-year-old LFA vet who is better than his 1-3 record over his last four suggests.
Listen, I don’t think Lawrence is going to have the kind of meteoric rise fellow Contender Series grads like Edmen Shahbazyan or Maycee Barber or Sean O’Malley enjoyed, and I’m not sure he even becomes more than a middle-of-the-pack bantamweight going forward, but like the UFC President, I liked what I saw out of “The Heat” back in September and I’m excited to see what he brings to the table this weekend.
Enjoy the fights.